"Everyone sounds like Shrek"

This past weekend, the group got to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. It's someplace I've never been, and the excitement I had about getting to go there might have been a little unnecessary. And yet, Scotland, or the tiny amount of Edinburgh we actually got to see, completely met and surpassed my expectations. The city was a little bubble of history in both it's New Town and Old Town. The Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat rise above the city and give it a breath-taking view and respite from the bustle of the city. Even though it is small, way smaller than London, there was a jillion things to do, we just didn't have enough time to explore everything in this amazing, peaceful city.
Even the train ride there was really relaxing and gave us a chance to see the beautiful landscapes of England and Southern Scotland. I saw sheep:):) Our hotel was super cute, even though Sarah, Leslie, and I were on the fourth floor... The spectacular view made up for it however. I took some time just sitting in a chair by the window looking out at that view.

As soon as we got there, we went to grab some lunch before visiting the Scottish Parliament. A friend, Rachel, made me a bit nauseous when she offered to eat the leftover skin from my salmon...she just ate it. Weird. Then after traipsing down the Royal Mile and about 50 Cashmere or Kilt stores, we came to the Scottish Parl't. It was a very different. Okay it was kinda ugly. They tried to make it all modernized and organic, and it just looked terrible. I did like how light and open it was, but otherwise, it was not pretty. Even the people who live there don't think it's pretty. This was its only good side

After Parl't, we got to ride on a double decker for the first time since being here, on a bus tour of Edinburgh. The city has held many famous and intelligent people, many rich (who have keys to their own private gardens), and many who have done wonders in the city to preserve its history and authenticity. The driver also pointed out Rose Street, which had nearly 20 bars on it, and the whole bus got excited. That's where we spent out evening, even though it was quite lame. It consisted of most people being over the age of 45, crazy Americans singing karaoke, and getting carded every three seconds. They let a whole group of us into a bar and no one got carded until I walked in. Cool. Tried wearing a headband for the first time, and that was fun:)


Saturday, we got up bright and early, my shower shut off on my halfway through, and most of us had breakfast at the hotel before we went off to the Edinburgh Castle. Although a bit chilly, it was a beautiful castle and lots of good looking guys. I mean good looking paintings and decor...As a group we grabbed lunch then most of us went off to climb Arthur's Seat, an old giant dormant volcano, and climbed to the top, 832 feet in the air, about a 3.7 mile walk. It was sooooo fun!! A little painful, but a great hike, even though my camera died halfway up. Jackson was nice and took this picture of me at the very top (just had to do a dance pose:)). It was a memorable experience and a gorgeous panoramic view of the city.


We all just kinda died after the giant climb so we just laid on the grass and in the sun for a while which was wonderful. We scaled the Royal Mile again, where we tried to do more things, but everything closes at 5, I bought this really soft dark green cashmere scarf, and we had a cheap but good dinner at a bar called The Tron. That night we went to this outside 'beer garden' called The Three Sisters, where I didn't drink, but danced to the DJ and laughed at Jackson's crazy dance moves that attracted a whole crowd. A fun night beside the fact that I was sick with a cold...

The last day we were there, most of us decided to visit the Scotch Whiskey Experience, which was this fun and interesting tour ride in a barrel (like Disney's haunted mansion ride) that took you through the process of making whiskey, a smelling and learning about the different types section with a hungover tour guide, and then an actual tasting. I tried a pearish kind of whiskey, wasn't too bad, and we got to keep the glass:) There was A LOT of Whiskey in there...

Katie and I also met these two guys who had just graduated from Westpoint, and it was really cool talking to them and hearing their interesting stories during the tour. After, a few of us went by the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter! We then stopped into the Museum of Scotland, which was a bit boring, beside seeing the real guillotine and playing dress up in the discovery center! We got to have a little picnic in the park which was beautiful and relaxing (apparently we were in Scotland on one of the most beautiful weather weekends of the year). Before we headed to the station, we stopped at Jenners, one of the most amazing department stores I've ever been in. I wanted to try on everything. It was torture. But really good to get to see this historically popular store. After that we headed to the station where our train got delayed by 40 minutes and we were all walking dead....but otherwise it was an amazing weekend and I want to go back already.



Song of the day: "To Sir With Love" (Glee Cast)